Jul. 27—Growing up, Adam Retzbach always wanted to play baseball. So, naturally, the goal became to play the game in college.

He achieved that by attending Lehigh University, where he suited up as a starting catcher at the Division-I level for three seasons. The goal evolved again when the Lakeland grad realized he could have a shot at playing at the next level.

Now, the 21-year-old can check off that, too.

Selected by Baltimore in the 14th round of the Major League Baseball draft, Retzbach on Tuesday signed a contract with the Orioles to turn pro and forgo his remaining collegiate eligibility.

"Was something that I really worked hard for," the Greenfield Twp. native said. "Just happy to be here now and hopefully can keep striving to get to the next level of wherever I'm at."

For the past couple of days, Retzbach has been at the Orioles' player development complex in Sarasota, Florida, going through some medical tests and taking care of some other procedural things. Finally, he and other members of his draft class got to put pen to paper.

"It was awesome to kind of get that moment and become a professional baseball player officially," he said.

Retzbach was one of two catchers the Orioles drafted this season, joining University of Texas backstop Silas Ardoin, their fourth-round selection. In his three seasons at Lehigh, Retzbach batted .272 with a .856 OPS, connecting for 18 home runs in 105 games, including 11 in 50 games as a junior this past season.

"I really enjoyed my three years at Lehigh," said Retzbach, who could have returned for more with the Mountain Hawks. "I'll be back there in the fall taking classes, so I'll still be around and (will) see my friends and everything. But it was kind of bittersweet when I was cleaning my locker out because I obviously enjoyed my time and I loved the coaches, the players, the school.

"But I knew that I was onto something that I've always wanted to do. So, it still kind of felt pretty cool to be able to do that — clean out my locker when I was only three years in was what my goal was, but I'll definitely miss Lehigh."

Baltimore's minor league affiliate ladder begins with the FCL Orioles of the Florida Complex League, who play in Sarasota. The next three rungs are based in Maryland: the Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds, who play in Salisbury; the High-A Aberdeen Ironbirds; and the Double-A Bowie Baysox. The Triple-A Norfolk Tides are in Virginia and, like the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, are a member of the International League East Division.

For now, it's likely Retzbach and his draft classmates stick around the player development complex.

"It's all been great," he said. "Facilities are super nice. Fields are awesome, weight room, all the staff I've met are really driven people and you can tell that there's a clear mission within the organization from top to bottom that they're not here to mess around. It's all for serious business. But it's been great. Everyone's really nice and we're all kind of striving toward the same goal. So, it's pretty cool to see how organizations work and I think I got lucky to be part of the Orioles."

Retzbach is the fifth former Lackawanna League player currently in affiliated baseball, joining Jake McCarthy (Arizona Diamondbacks/Scranton High School), Max Kranick (Pittsburgh Pirates/Valley View) and Cory Spangenberg (St. Louis Cardinals/Abington Heights), who are all in the major leagues; and Mason Black, a pitcher at High-A in the San Francisco Giants organization who was Retzbach's batterymate at Lehigh. Scranton's Joe McCarthy is playing with the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan.

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